


The Field of Roses

by themistywitch



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Blood, F/F, F/M, Gay, Lesbian Polyamoury, Lesbian Threesome, M/M, Multi, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-14 20:28:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18483775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themistywitch/pseuds/themistywitch
Summary: Keith starts coughing up roses and goes to investigate. He now has only 3 months to live, and once he dies (Which he's sure he will) he hopes the others are happy.





	1. In which Keith runs off 2 times leaving a confused Lance

**Author's Note:**

> ANGST.

Keith and Lance grunted as their swords clashed against each other, fighting to stay in dominance. Lance back-somersaults away from Keith as he pants for air, this particular training being very rigorous. Lance smiles slyly, holding his beyard up and gesturing for Keith to come at him again, he can take it. But apparently he can not. Keith has him pinned in a second, both of them on the ground, with Keith on top. 

“Oh! U-uh, Keith? Could you get your beyard away from my neck?”

Keith comes back to reality as his sword pulls away from Lance’s neck. He sighs, looking down at the tan freckled boy beneath him. The freckles dance across Lance’s cheeks, his smooth skin glowing in the light of the training room. His fawn hair looks soft and luscious, and his eyes are as blue as the deepest ocean on earth. Keith breaths out slowly, his breath blowing down to encircle Lance’s neck. 

“K-Keith…”

Lance stutters, a blush flashing bright red on his face. Lance is looking up at Keith as well, taking in his soft features, his porcelain skin, purple-ish blue eyes, his soft raven hair and his soft but sharp jawline. Lance can’t help but smile and quietly giggle at the situation they’re in. Keith suddenly twinges as his face contorts, and he falls off of Lance, straight onto his side, a hard blow to his shoulder. His face is screwed up in pain, and he shoots up onto his feet, not bothering to help Lance stand, and runs off in the direction of the bathroom. Lance calls after him, but Keith just keeps running. He starts coughing as he throws open the door to the bathroom, kneeling over the toilet and sweating while starting to cough much more violently, something caught in his throat. He coughed more, squeezing his eyes shut trying desperately to get the thing out. Something finally dislodged itself from his throat, and he sighed. He opened his eyes to see a flower petal flutter down out of his mouth and into the still water, causing small ripples as it landed. It floated delicately on the water’s surface, gracefully gliding across the water slowly. A mocha rose petal. The exact color of Lance’s fawn hair… Keith just looks down at the petal, then stands up and flushes the toilet. He isn’t sure of what’s happening, but he’s going to figure it out. 

“Coughing… up… f-l-o…” Keith sticks his tongue out in concentration, quickly typing the letters into the altean database. He bounces on the balls of his feet, restless as the results load up. A folder pops up, labeled Hanahaki Disease. Keith wastes no time clicking it onto a flash drive he had at the ready, ready to spend hours looking through data just to figure out what the hell was wrong with him. If anyone found him, he would snap the usb drive while it was inside the computer. He sticks the flashdrive in, and the contents pull up. Keith clicks on the first article. He reads.

The Hanahaki disease is a disease where the affected coughs up flowers until they die. The cause is unrequited love. The flowers are often color variants of the love’s favorite flower. (Ex. If the victim’s love’s favorite flower is a morning glory, the victim will cough up morning glory petals the color of the victim’s most prominent features, such as blue for the color of the love’s eyes, or black for the color that the love is always wearing.) The victim usually has about 6 months to survive once the flowers appear, unless the flower is a rose. The rose thorns will shorten the time to 3 months, and blood will come out with the petals as the thorns pierce the victim’s lungs. The only cure is for the love to become requited and for the victim to know that the other loves them. If that does not happen, the victim will die. The sign of the last 2 weeks of the life of the victim if the love does not become requited is full bloom flowers. If the victim dies, the vines will eventually grow out of the corpse’s mouth and encase them in vines, then taking root to grow a field around them, flowers and grass growing in a 2 mile radius. The victim’s body is preserved perfectly, for as long a 50 million years. Hanahaki fields live forever and through everything. Many victims of hanahaki give themselves up to the disease and plant their own field with their corpse. A monument stands on Altea to remember the lives lost to the Hanahaki Disease. 

Keith finishes reading and takes a deep breath in and out. He clicks on a folder of images. They show pictures of alteans and other species coughing up flowers and it has a few pictures of hanahaki fields. Keith is entranced by the images of hanahaki fields. They were each different, some like gigantic gardens with hedges and paths and ponds and rows of pretty flowers and some much more like an actual field, with grasses and flowers scattered across the ground. Keith is looking at some pictures of hanahaki victims with their corpses wrapped in flowery vines when a voice comes from an opening door.

“Hey mullet! What’cha looking at?”

Keith panics as Lance walks up, and just as Lance gets a glimpse at the screen, Keith bangs down the part of the flash drive sticking out of the computer, snapping it in two. He stands up quickly, answering Lance’s question with a brief and loud ‘nothing’ before running out of the room. The computer is left behind, but with no trace of what Keith was looking at. All Lance can see is Keith’s screensaver, a selfie Lance had taken with just him and Keith. Lance picks up the broken end of the flashdrive and puts it in his pocket. He is going to figure out what was up with Keith, and he is going to do it soon.


	2. In which Keith comes out to Pidge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is pulled to the side by Pidge and her 2 girlfriends and interrogated.

The next 4 weeks pass without incident, but Keith’s coughing fits are getting gradually worse, and he has to avoid Lance unless he wants to have twice as many flowers in his next attack. Keith is rounding a bend when he runs into Pidge and her 2 girlfriends. The 3 started dating 2 years ago, and their relationship is a strong and sturdy one. Pidge, Allura and Romelle immediately stop when they see Keith. 

“We’ve been looking for you all over! Come with us.”

Keith is very suspicious of them, but follows anyway. They take him to Pidge’s room, and shut the door behind them. 

“When were you going to tell us you had a deadly chronic disease that is going to kill you in less than 6 months?”

Keith is taken aback, but plays it cool. 

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb, you know exactly what we mean,” growls Romelle in a low hiss.

“No, I don’t. I am completely healthy, and am most definitely not going to die in 2 months. I don’t know where you got this idea, but it’s completely absurd,” states Keith in a deadpan voice.

“Then why were you looking up Hanahaki disease in private and panicking enough to break a USB drive when Lance walked in?”

Keith was already thinking this through, and had all the possible excuses.

“I was looking up Hanahaki because I knew someone with it back on earth, her name was George Glass. I wanted to know more about it. And I panicked because I also had personal stuff on the screen.”

“Such as?”

Keith gulps. This was actually a true statement. He had been going splitscreen and simultaneously reading about hanahaki and looking for a better chest binder because his was too small for him now, but he refuses not to wear it, because no one knows this about him. That he’s… trans. They all see him as a guy, but what they don’t know is that he wasn’t even born as one. He is on testosterone, but he’s been on that since before he met Shiro. Not even Shiro knew this about him. He had always had a binder, because his Dad had been completely supportive, letting him go immediately to testosterone, and buying him a binder once he needed one.   
“I was looking at chest binders…” Keith mumbles through his teeth in the smallest possible voice he can muster. He looks away in shame. 

“I can’t hear you,” Pidge states demandingly in a clear tone.

“I was looking at chest binders…” Keith mumbles the tiniest bit louder.

“I heard ‘I’ and ‘chest’. I hope this isn’t what I think it is.”

“I was looking at chest binders, okay?!” Keith blurts out, shocking Pidge. Allura and Romelle had never heard of that before, so they were confused. But Pidge was ready to speak up.

“You’re-?”

“Yes, I’m trans, okay? You can laugh at me now. Just let me out of here.”

“Keith, why would I laugh at you?”

“Because I-”

“Shut up and let me give you all my support. Oh my god.”

“W-What??”

“You. Are. Valid. Just let that sink in. You need a moment to process?”

“Yes-?”

“Who made you feel less valid? Who do I need to beat up? Is it Lance? Cuz I swear to god, he got it coming to him if it is.”

“No, of course not! Nobody makes me feel like this, I just have always found the fact that I even have to transition a huge downer on my self esteem. I hate it. I wish I could just- be a boy. Without having to transition. It’s depressing. And man, periods SUCK.”

“BRO SAME”

Romelle spoke up. 

“So, if he has periods like us girls, does that mean he’s a girl-”

“I’M NOT A GIRL.”

“Than how do you-?”

“Romelle, in humans, there’s a thing that some have called gender dysphoria. This means they are not comfortable in their own bodies and genders, so they do this thing called transition where they change their bodies to fit who they really are, and they also adopt different names and pronouns. Keith probably transitioned at a young age, due to how long we’ve known him to have that deep voice.”

“I started testosterone when I was 7.”

“Wow. Well, Now I’ve met the T. I just need the G, the B, and the Q now…”

“What are you talking about?”

“I want to meet someone from every category of LGBTQ. But this is off topic. DEADLY CHRONIC DISEASE. EXPLAIN.”

“I already said, I don’t have it. You guys are overreacting. I’m fi-” Keith cut off, a bout of pain in his abdomen hitting him like a bus. 

“Gahh… What I do have is cramps. And they come hard. Tch-”

“Oh, geez, I have to deal with those too. You know what, you’re off the hook. But you have to hang out with us for the rest of the day.”

“Deal. Is it okay if I rant?”

“Dude, say anything you want, and we’ll be here to listen. We’re here for you.”

Keith smiles and takes a deep breath.

“Now, where do I begin?”

-o-x-o-

Keith is now upside down on the couch in the lounge, his feet swinging over the back and his head falling over the edge of the seat. Pidge and her two girlfriends are sitting normally on either side of him.

“Okay, can I start off by saying that Lance freaking McClain is the prettiest, most perfect human ever? I mean, it’s not like he’ll ever like me back, he’s obviously into girls, but freaking DAMN- his skin just looks so soft and his freckles are hecking beautiful and I just want to squeeze his adorable chubby cheeks, UGH. Second, can I just state a fact we all know? Hunk is a precious cinnamon roll and his girlfriend is too. Third, Shiro doesn’t know that I’m trans even though we’ve known each other for 7 years. It hurts. I want to tell him, I really do, but this is all too much, because I really do have Hanahaki. And I know exactly who it is. Lance freaking McClain, with his adorable fawny hair and his deep blue eyes and everything. But he’s too busy flirting with girls to even notice me trying to tell him I’m interested in him, and now with these stupid flowers, all I can do is watch from a distance as he pulls farther and farther from my reach. And the flowers freaking hurt. They hurt like hell. They burn my throat and the thorns from the bush sometimes even come up and scrape their way along my throat, drawing more flipping blood I have to cough up and then clean up. The thorns poke my lungs, and it hurts. It-it hurts…” 

Keith breaks off and starts to cry, his eyes betraying him and releasing tears he had before held back, because it all hurts so much, the flowers, the pain of letting down his mentor, the pain of seeing Lance every day and knowing he can’t have him. The pain of knowing that no matter what he does, he will always biologically be a girl. All of that pain put into one person, Keith. And Keith just cries. He can’t stand it. Pidge, Romelle, and Allura are there to comfort him in seconds, and he cries. He says something in the smallest voice. 

“I’m going to die in two months, and I’m going to tell the rest of the team that I’m going on a mission that’ll last 10 years. I’ll tell them which planet, so when I plant my field they can see when they come to visit me. You three will be the only ones to know.”

“Keith…”

And now Pidge, Allura and Romelle are crying too.

“Can’t we just try to cure it? Please! We can’t lose you, you’re a vital part of the team!”

“You guys survived without me when i went to the Blade of Marmora. You can survive without me for the rest of Voltron’s mission too. I’ll leave once I start coughing up full bloom flowers.”

Everyone is sobbing now, and they’re all just holding onto each other.

“Keith, please, we have to try and cure it. You can’t just accept defeat before you even start the battle!”

“I can, because I know I’m going to lose. You guys will be fine without me, I know you will. Please, just do me a favor?”

“What is it?”

“Tell Lance I love him when I’m gone. Only after I die, though.”

“O-ok, I will. But-”

“No buts. We can’t force Lance to fall in love with me, because he likes girls. That’s just his sexuality, we can’t change that fact, and it’s not his fault that his sexuality is that way. That’s the way 95% of the population is. He was just sucked in by the majority.”

They are still crying when Lance walks into the room.

“Hey, what’s going on- hey, why are you crying!?”

Lance starts to rush over to help but Pidge hisses at him.

“Get away!”

She’s trying to shield Keith and Lance from each other’s eyes. It’s working, because Lance is confused, until he sees Keith in the middle of their huddle

“What is Keith doing here? Why is he crying?”

“Because unlike you seem to notice, he has emotions, too.”

“I know! But why is he crying?”

“None of your business!”

“But I wanna help!”

That shut everyone up. 

“Guys, stop lashing out at Lance, it’s not his fault, we’ve been over this. Lance, I’m fine, I’m just remembering my parents. It’s just hard for me, ok?”

Lance’s face falls.

“Oh, sorry buddy. I’ll leave now, sorry for interrupting.”

Lance turns on his heel and stalks out, clearly sorry for interrupting. Keith continues to cry, before starting to cough violently, his throat and eyes burning, things building up in his throat already. The petals came tumbling out, multiple colors but all roses. Suddenly a large mass welled itself in Keith’s throat, keeping Keith from breathing, or coughing. The sudden stop in coughing alerted Pidge and the girls, who were trying to help Keith through the attack. Then Allura started doing the heimlich maneuver, pumping Keith’s chest inwards and up, forcing the flower out. It was a full bloom. 

“I thought you still had 2 months!”

Pidge interrupts.

“It’s because the flower is a rose and he sees Lance so much. It sped up the process. God dammit, why does this have to happen so fast?”

She starts crying again, along with Allura and Romelle. Keith sighs.

“I guess my time is up. Wanna come with me while I tell the others?”

Pidge and the girls nodded. They got up, helped the still shaking Keith up, and started to walk towards the bridge. 

When they got to the main area of the castle, Lance, Hunk, Shiro, And Coran were already there. Keith walked up to address them.

“Hey, Kolivan just pulled me out for a mission that’s going to last a long time, and I have to leave immediately. You guys are allowed to visit me on the planet, but not for 2 weeks. Just wanted to say something before I left. The planet is Planet XXXX in the XXX system.”

“Okay, good luck!”

And with that, Keith was off the hook. He ran back to his room and grabbed a notebook and a pencil. He then ran to a pod, jumping in. Then he remembered something. He started to get out,but Lance ran up. 

“Hey Keith! Just wanted to say goodbye, and we’ll be sure to visit you. Pidge and the girls are breaking down, even though it’s not a big deal, we can visit you.”

“Yeah, but I have a question for you: What would your dream garden look like? I know It’s off topic, but just answer.”

“Dream garden? Oh, well, probably one with all sorts of plants, and a hedge maze, and a koi pond, and paths all throughout. But the one big thing, a big tree in the middle. And when I say big tree, I mean BIG like, 15 foot radius in the trunk alone big, and it oversees the whole garden. Why do you ask?”

“No reason. Well, goodbye.”

“Bye! We’ll be sure to visit you!”

“I look forward to it.”

And with that, Keith flew off in the pod, heading for the planet he had chosen. 

-x-|-x-

When Keith arrived on the planet, he set down the pod and began to write. He was writing a goodbye letter. Basically a suicide note, but with a deadly chronic disease instead of suicide. Keith started off: 

I first want to say that I’m sorry to everyone. I’m sorry to Shiro for not being brave enough to trust, I’m sorry to Lance for not being good enough, I’m sorry to Pidge for making you stay silent, I’m sorry to Allura and Romelle for making you go through this, and I’m sorry to Hunk for not being a better friend. I have the Hanahaki Disease, and by the time you read this I’ll be dead. I know exactly who it’s for. Lance McClain. This letter is split into parts, and each is meant only for the person I write it too. The different parts are in different parts of my garden. Lance, your letter is by the Koi pond. Hunk, yours is in the spice garden. Shiro, your letter is at the base of the tree. Pidge, Allur, and Romelle, your letters are together, and there’s one for each of you and one for the three of you together. They are in the flower garden. My body is going to be wrapped in vines, possibly somewhere by the tree. I’ll miss you all. Goodbye.

Tears drip down Keith’s face as he writes the last word. He then goes on to write the individual letters for everyone.

Lance, you are beautiful. I can fully say, now that I have Hanahaki, that I am 100% in love with you. I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s true. I fell for your soft smile, your adorable laugh, and your amazing personality. Your soft skin, your cute freckles and your soft brown hair, the way you walk, the way you talk. You are beautiful. And I know you don’t feel the same way about me, but I just wanted to let you know how I felt. I also have something else to tell you. I’m trans.

Keith kept on writing, finishing off the letter, then moving on to everyone else. The letters were on parchment Keith had grabbed before he left, and Keith had brought a wax stamp and ribbon. If he’s gonna write letters, why not go with the theme? He then realizes that he has no idea how to put the letters in the right places, as he’d be dead when the garden grew, but remembered that the garden grew to the victim’s will, so he would just have to hope some plants carried it there. 

For the next 13 days, Keith passed time by napping or just laying down and contemplating the universe. It was boring, but Keith didn’t care. On the 14th day, Keith felt something slowly creeping up his windpipe. He smiled. So it was finally over.


	3. In which the paladins visit Keith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The paladins figure out Kolivan never sent Keith on a mission, and they race to the planet Keith mentioned going to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning, Major Character death here. Anyway, this chapter is short but fast paced, and a lot happens. It's kind of hard to follow, honestly, but I tried!

-x-|-x-

Shiro and the crew decide that now that it’s been 2 weeks, they want to check up on Keith. They want to make sure it’s ok, though, so they call Kolivan. 

“Hello?”

“We wanted to know if we could go visit Keith on that mission you sent him on at planet XXXX in system XXX.”

“What? I never sent him on a mission.”

The paladins all got sudden worried faces. 

“We’ll call you back.”

The call ended.

“Paladins, we’re going to check on Keith.”

Allura’s face is filled with sadness as she puts in the coordinates for the planet Keith mentioned. The wormhole appears, and the castle flies through. On the other side, they see a completely dead planet, a small one at that. Maybe 2 miles in circumference. 

“Paladins, Lions.” The amount of concern in Shiro’s voice is high enough to set everyone on edge, and they hustle to comply.

“Romelle is coming with me in my lion,” states Allura. No one cares to argue, and they start to fly down when a burst of green starts to envelop the planet. The paladins are shocked, but they watch as the green completely covers the small planet. They fly down, not noticing Pidge’s small sobs through the intercom. They do notice when she yells, 

“Don’t you dare land on the garden! Other side of the planet.”

The other paladins are taken aback but follow her command, flying around to the other side of the planet. The Lions touch down on the soft green grass, and the paladins gather. 

“The gravity here is like on earth. That’s really weird, because it should be basically non-existent, and my scanners are picking up an atmosphere that’s perfect for breathing. We can take our helmets off.”

The paladins do, and they start walking. They see a hedge, and start to walk towards that. They see an archway with something on it, but it’s too far away to tell what. As they walk, there is a slight wind, and it blows the grass beneath their feet. As they they get closer, They see that the small thing pinned to the archway is a letter. They are still 50 feet away, so Lance starts to run. The others follow close. The scenery plays out in front of them. There is a huge oak tree, at least 15 feet in radius alone, and it’s surrounded by a garden fenced in with a picket fence. 25 feet away. 15 feet. 5 feet. 

They stop. Lance grabs the letter off the archway, not reading it yet. He starts to run into the garden, hoping to find Keith wherever he is. His feet fall fast on the pebbles of the pathway he runs, as greens fly by his vision. Sweat beads on his brow as he keeps up his endurance. To his left, a koi pond appears in his vision, complete with orange, black, and white fish, and a small bridge. Farther on the path, he sees a garden of flowers, then an orchard, and a hedge maze, and strawberry plants. Everything seems beautiful, and yet Lance is far from blissful. He’s worried about Keith. Actually, he’s not worried, far from it. He’s terrified. 

He runs, his eyes on the verge of tears. Where is Keith!? He turns sharply on a path taking a different direction. Maybe Keith is over here? He runs, wind whipping his face, blowing his hair back. He finally runs into the tree, panting and shaking. Tears slide down his face. Where is he!? Then something comes to mind. The letter. 

Lance pulls it out of his pocket, tearing open the wax seal. He reads. His eyes widen. Tears roll down Lance’s face as he drops to his knees. Shiro and the other paladins come running into the clearing, and see Lance on the ground in tears. They run towards him, fear and anguish in their eyes. Lance throws the letter down and runs off in the direction of the koi pond, startling everyone. Lance cries out as he runs, wanting to take it all back. He wants to scream, scream that he was sorry, scream for Keith to come back. He skids to a halt at the koi pond, and notices for the first time a letter sealed with wax and a ribbon sitting on the bridge. Lance wastes to time sprinting towards it. He scoops it up, tearing open the wax and laser focusing on the words on the page. He reads as tears once again roll down his cheeks. He finishes reading the letter and throws it down. 

“No! N-No! You can’t go, you can’t, you can’t, you can’t!!” Lance screams as he drops to his knees again, throwing himself on the ground, tears flowing and dropping down his nose as he screams. He stays that way for about 15 minutes before getting up and slowly walking towards the tree. When he comes into the clearing, he sees everyone else crying as well, even Shiro. They all look up when they hear Lance as he walks up to the tree. He places his hand on it, and then opens his eyes. Just like it mentioned in the letter, there is a cocoon of vines centered near one of the roots. Lance wants to tear open the vines, to scream at Keith to come back, not to leave him. His fist clenches. His eyes catch something. The capsule is moving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> owo the capsule is... MOVING!?

**Author's Note:**

> Lance probably thinks Keith was looking at... other things... like hentai


End file.
